SMALL ROCK-GARDENS 97 



where the label must be there. But I considered that 

 in dressed ground or pure pleasure ground, where 

 the object is some scheme of garden beauty, the 

 label, even if it must be there, should never be 

 seen. I felt this so keenly myself when I first had 

 a piece of rock-garden that I hit upon a plan that 

 can be confidently recommended : that of driving 

 the ugly thing into the earth, leaving only just enough 

 above ground to lay hold of. In this case also the 

 zinc strip can be much shorter ; only enough length is 

 wanted to write the name ; the writing with metallic 

 ink also remains fresh longer in the damp ground, 

 and shows clear when the peg is pulled up to be 

 looked at. And then one finds out how seldom one 

 really wants the label. In my own later practice, 

 Avhere the number of different plants has been reduced 

 to just those I like best and think most worthy of a 

 place, they are so well known to me that their names 

 are as familiar as those of my best friends ; and when 

 I admit a new plant, if I cannot at once learn its 

 name, it is purposely given a big ugly label as a self- 

 inflicted penance that shall continue until such time 

 as I can expiate by remembrance. 



I have two small rock-gardens, differently treated. 

 The upper one leads from lawn to copse, and is made 

 with a few simple parallel ridges of stone, clothed for 

 the most part with small shrubs, such as Gaultheria 

 and Alpine Rhododendron, with hardy Ferns, and 

 groups of two or three plants of conspicuously hand- 



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